Topanga scrawls a thousand words on a page feverishly. Lucas watches in awe. There are 76 missed texts from Riley and 14 missed calls. 19 missed texts and 2 missed calls from Farkle. 1 missed call from Maya.
He tenses up. "Mrs. Matthews?" She looks up at the boy, worn and concerned. He swallows and nods at his phone. "Can I call Maya? She called a few minutes ago."
She thinks for a moment. "Yes. But if there's any pertinent info I should know I need to be informed." He nods and excuses himself from the room, finding a quiet area around the corner in the station.
He dials Maya and she picks up after the second ring. "Lucas," she says, her voice full of relief.
"Maya, what's wrong, are you okay?" he starts to worry.
"I'm fine," she says. "But I just heard that Griffin is in emergency surgery for a collapsed lung."
Lucas nearly drops his phone. "I-I didn't mean to do that, Maya, you have to believe me." He's starting to hyperventilate.
"Lucas, breathe," Maya says soothingly. "Go tell Topanga. My mom is dropping me off at the station. I'll see you soon." She hangs up and he can't help but wonder where's she's suddenly getting her strength from.
He enters the room and sits quietly. Topanga waits. He stares at his hands and works up the courage to say something but can't find the words. He almost killed Griffin. Hell, the night's still young, there's still time left for his lung to not heal. He could be a murderer at any time. He trembles in his seat and bites his lip so hard it almost bleeds.
"Lucas, honey, what's wrong? What did Maya say?" She grabs his hand, confused.
"I-I-I..." he whispers hoarsely. "Griffin... he's being treated... For a collapsed lung." He chokes on a whimper. "I almost killed him." Jackson pats his son's back. He's never dealt with someone like this before. And it kills him that it's his own son.
Topanga frowns but writes something else in her stack of notes. "I've decided that the best course of action to take is self defence. Yes, you were protecting Maya, but he also attacked you. You just confronted him. He hit you first, right?"
Lucas thinks for a moment. "I don't remember," he says honestly, upset.
"It's okay. He made contact first. That's what we're going with. Officer Gomez will be here any moment," she tells the gentlemen in front of her. "You're going to have to step outside, Jackson. But you're allowed to watch in that room," she points at the mirror.
Lucas looks at the mirror and suddenly has visions of every cop show he's ever seen. The mirrors are always two way glass. People might be watching right now. Wouldn't that ruin Topanga's plan? he thinks to himself. He mentally laughs at himself. She knows exactly what she's doing. She's the best defence attorney in the state.
Jackson turns to look at him. "Son, I want you to know that no matter what happens, I'm proud of you. You were raised to protect your friends and that's all you've been doing your whole life. I have absolute faith in this woman," he adds, looking at Topanga. "You're going to be just fine. Just tell the truth and everything will work out the way it should."
Lucas nods as Gomez comes in with a brown folder in his hands. It isn't as thick as he's used to seeing on TV. He's not sure if that's a good or bad thing, but he lets it go. Topanga switches seats when Jackson leaves and Gomez sits where she just was.
"Okay, Lucas," he greets. He puts a voice recorder in the table and Lucas's mouth goes dry. "What happened between you and the victim?"
Twenty six minutes later, Lucas steps out of the room with Topanga, whose expression is indecipherable. He stretches a little and turns to his saviour. "Thank you, Mrs. Matthews. For everything." He goes to hug her.
She smiles. "Any time. But you and Maya need to talk to Riley. And whatever happened just now isn't over. There's more to come. I'll let you know if I hear any information on Griffin, though."
He nods, thankful. She smiles and rubs his back as she leaves. He takes a deep breath. He thinks about Texas and the time he went there with all his friends. He thinks about the night Maya confessed her feelings for him and changed everything between the four of them. Their little group worked when it was him and Riley. But now it's the three of them. Not much was said after that. School was almost over. Only about a month away. He stopped going on "dates" with Maya and he stopped looking at Riley like she was the world. Because he didn't know what he felt anymore.
He turns around and sees Maya looking at him, fiddling with her sleeves.
"Hey," he says awkwardly.
"Hi," she returns, standing up.
They gaze at each other for a moment and he looks outside. "Let's go home."
He walks Maya to her apartment in silence. The streets are quiet as it's the evening. He notices how pretty her street is, despite her building being the oldest on the block. He looks down at her while they walk and she's still bunching the sleeves of her shirt in her hands, a nervous habit, he concludes.
She takes a deep breath and he waits for her to say something. But she doesn't. She has a pained expression on her face. They walk a little while longer until they're standing out front of the gate. "This is me," she states solemnly.
He nods.
There's silence.
And more silence.
"Look, I-"
"I want to-"
They stop abruptly, interrupting each other. She laughs slightly and he brushes his hands through his hair. More silence.
"Look, I'm sorry," she almost yells. He looks at her in confusion. "For everything. For telling you I liked you over a month ago, for ruining your thing with Riley, for getting you involved in this shit. I'm sorry I ever fell for you and for jeopardizing the best thing in our lives with the best person in our lives." Her eyes are welling up again and she's looking away in the distance.
"Maya," he whispers.
"It's okay, Ranger Rick. I'm a big girl," she says, wiping her eyes. "I can handle this alone." She turns to go inside but pauses. "Thank you, and I'm sorry." She runs to her building then.
"Maya, wait!" he calls, chasing after her. The inside door locks then, and he's locked out of the building, left with the image of Maya in tears as the elevator door closes in front of him. He slams the wall then and hisses at the pain.
Lucas takes a deep breath as he enters the school the next day. People are quiet and they stare at him. Words are whispered between mutters. He keeps his head down and braces himself for what used to be his favourite class of the day: history.
He closes his eyes and prepares himself for the hurricane coming in his direction. He walks in to the classroom and takes his seat. The class quiets and he faces the blackboard with a stony look. Riley doesn't look at him, except for the casual side glance here and there when she thinks she's being stealthy. He sighs and opens his books when Mr. Matthews walks in and gives him a look of skepticism. He stares at the dull pages and pretends to read.
Then Maya walks in.
He almost manages to not look at her. But he screws up. He looks at her and his breath hitches, because for the first time in a long while, she's smiling. Her earphones are in and she takes her seat without a word. She pulls out one earbud but to his surprise, leaves the one facing her friends in.
She pulls out her books and starts to read. Everyone is staring at the two of them, despite the fact they're ignoring each other. He stares at the back of her head, her golden blonde hair gracefully spilling on his desk. Riley peers at Maya, a grim look on her face. Lucas buries his face in his textbook. He can't bear deal with this class.
Mr. Matthews sits down and looks on his class expectantly. "What's the word, Hambone?" Farkle asks casually from his seat.
"You tell me," he retorts.
There's dead silence among the students.
Riley is visibly struggling with biting her tongue.
Maya is lightly drumming with her pencils.
Farkle sits there, bored.
Lucas want to scream.
"Lucas?" Riley whispers, confused and worried. He looks at her and says nothing. "What's going on?"
He shrugs but Maya speaks from her seat, not sparing anyone a glance. "Tell her, Ranger Rick," she says, looking at her books, turning the pages casually. "Tell her all about it, because you know you want to."
"Maya, I would never do-"
"Tell me what?" Riley interrupts, annoyed. "Tell me why you never answered my texts? Or you..." she glares at Maya. "Tell me why you ran out and haven't spoken to me since then. Were you just trying to get Lucas al-"
"Griffin Feldman has been making me his personal punching bag for the last few weeks and it got to be too much to handle. Riley, believe it or not, not everything is about you," Maya spits. "Lucas only got involved because he found me and wouldn't go away." She rips her jacket off and gets in Riley's face. "You see these bruises? I didn't bump in to a wall. And these cuts?" She gestures to her back and shoulders. "I didn't run in to a tree, Riley. Griffin did these." She's really angry, Lucas can tell. Her eyes are welling up in tears but her face screams anger and betrayal.
She looks at Riley, then at Farkle, then at Lucas, and back to Riley, who stands up to speak. "Maya, I'm sorry," she says in a strong, yet shaky voice. "Why didn't you tell me? I'm your best friend."
"Riley, I don't know what we are anymore but we've hardly spoken since Texas," Maya replies lowly. Lucas notices everyone staring as per usual. Maya continues, "and really? Your best friend? You just sat there and tried to accuse me of causing a scene to get close to Hop-Along over there. That's not how best friends treat each other."
Lucas looks in desperation at Mr. Matthews but he's not taking his eyes off the girls.
Riley wipes her eyes. "Best friends stay away from their best friend's boyfriend."
"He's not your boyfriend, Riley, and I did stay away! It almost fucking killed me but I did because you're the person I care about most in this world and I didn't want to hurt you. I didn't want to keep any more secrets from you," Maya yells. "And I didn't want this to happen, but big shocker, it happened anyway."
Lucas stands up. "Stop!" He slams his fists on the table. "You are Riley and Maya, the sun and the moon -" he looks at Farkle and back at them. "Angel's food cake and devil's food cake. You're better together. I'm just a guy, okay, don't let me ruin all your years of friendship! I'd rather never date either of you than let our group get destroyed over something as trivial as this. You bring out the best in each other!" He sits down with a heavy sigh and closes his eyes to control his temper.
The girls sit down quietly and refocus their attention to their teacher, who's been listening the whole time. They're both rattled but stay silent.
Mr. Matthews stands up from his desk and turns around with a piece of chalk in his hands and slowly, carefully, writes "Yin Yang" on the board. "Yin yang is rooted in Chinese philosophy," he begins. "What does it mean, Farkle?"
Farkle sits up and rattles off the information. "Yin and yang are opposing forces or sides that are actually complimentary," he says matter-of-factly. "Like good and bad, blue and orange, peanut butter and chocolate-"
"Riley and Maya," Lucas finishes. Both girls cock their heads slightly at their names but don't say anything.
"Exactly," Mr. Matthews says. He moves back to the chalkboard. "You've probably seen the symbol before." He draws a big circle on the black board and a curvy line in the centre, similar to an S, to divide it. He puts two smaller circles in each half on opposite sides of the circle, top and bottom. He colours one half white with his chalk and the opposite small circle as well. "You can see," he continues, " that each side has a small piece of the opposite in its own half. The white half has a little bit of black in it. In terms of good and bad, which is what it's often used for, it shows how's there's always a little bit of bad in good people and a little bit of good in bad people."
Zay pipes in from behind Lucas. "So what yer sayin' is, that there's a little bit of Riley in Maya and a little bit of Maya in Riley," he concludes.
"That's not what I'm saying, Zay. But if you can take anything away from that then I'm doing my job," Matthews replies. "Why do you think so?"
Zay gestures to Riley. "She jus' a few minutes ago got real mad at Maya 'cause she was left in the dark about her situation and assumed the worst. But I've been here long enough to know that Riley ain't usually like that, sir. She's usually a ray of sunshine. So I know that there's a lil bit of Maya in there," he explains. "And with Maya, see, she stepped back from good ol' Lucas here, because she didn't want to ruin her relationship with Riley. Usually Maya's the kind to do for herself and only herself, but she didn't this time. There's some Riley in her."
Lucas frowns. Zay was right. Maybe that's why he liked Maya, too. Because together, the girls are unstoppable.
"Interesting," Mr. Matthews said. "Pages 132 to 140. Read them, learn about Yin and Yang, and write a 500 word report on why you think it's a good or bad thing." Everyone sighs. He turns around but stops. "Oh and Maya," he sings.
"Oh no," she groans.
"For using such vulgar language in my classroom, detention."
"'Kay," she answers, opening her books.
"Daddy," Riley says in a high voice.
"Yes?"
"You'll love me no matter what, right? No matter what I do?" she asks slowly.
"...yes?" he responds timidly.
She swallows and stands up, readying herself. "Fuck."
Maya looks at Riley with wide eyes, her expression mirroring Mr. Matthews.
"Detention," he says, "and grounded for two weeks."
She sits down and nods.
Lucas stares at the girls in horror and awe.
"Yin and yang!" Zay yells, amused.
"There you go," Mr. Matthews smirks.
Later that day, when school is over, Lucas takes a peek at the classroom detention. He grabs his bag and very slowly moves towards the door and looks in. He sees Riley and Maya laughing with each other like nothing happened and he hopes everything can maybe go back to normal.
Thank you for the reviews so far. They make me smile. And if you lost faith in lucaya after this chapter, don't.